Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope has garnered a reputation recently as being a man who is in over his head.
In a recent article I wrote, I highlighted the rising levels of vitriol coming from the Wildcat faithful regarding Pope’s inability to close in the transfer portal while also letting top-ranked high school recruit, Tyran Stokes, slip through his grasp.
With all this in mind, the embattled coach and his team of PR personnel at the University of Kentucky had the brilliant idea to let Pope face the public firing squad that is social media in a stunning lack of self-awareness.
A public Q&A session? Really?
I want to know who in the PR department thought this was a good idea.
If I were advising Pope, I’d have to be incredibly frank with him. “Hey, coach! Listen, you guys flamed out in spectacular fashion in the NCAA Tournament, half your roster jumped into the portal, and you lost a surefire NBA lottery pick to Kansas. My advice to you would be to recruit and coach your a– off and maybe lie low for a while.”
Most people on X knew this was going to be an unmitigated disaster before even reading the questions, firing up their metaphorical popcorn as they eagerly awaited the slow-motion train wreck.
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Maybe we are overreacting, though.
I mean, it can’t be as bad as many on the internet were anticipating, right? Surely only a few trolls were filtered out before the real questions came through.
Let’s see what all the fuss was about.
Oh, yeah. It was that bad.
I’m not joking, I barely had to scroll. Those were all the first several questions that showed up when I opened the post’s comments section.
I’ve seen a lot of people on X, both Kentucky fans and neutral observers, saying that they feel bad for Pope because he had to do this.
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I’m not sure I necessarily agree with that sentiment.
As I stated above, the smart thing for Pope to do would be to lie low, roll up his sleeves and get to work. Maybe he could have even gotten with the Kentucky Basketball social media team and released a series of episodes highlighting how intense their offseason conditioning and practice programs have been.
Anything other than sitting in front of a camera and getting peppered by angry Wildcats fans drunk on bourbon and filled with disappointment.
The offseason of Mark Pope’s discontent soldiers on, and the beatings will continue until talent acquisition improves.
